FEMA aid freeze could halt $200 million in eastern Iowa flood recovery work

The federal government has frozen some types of disaster aid in the wake of Hurricane Irene, but it won’t have an immediate impact on western Iowa’s recovery from this summer’s major flooding on the Missouri River, state officials said today.

However, the freeze could delay upwards of $200 million in federal funds for projects still pending from the 2008 floods that struck eastern Iowa. Some examples of projects potentially delayed include replacing Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa and sewer projects in Cedar Rapids, said John Benson, a spokesman for the Iowa Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

“The key is the length of time the freeze is in place. The longer it is in place, the greater the impact,” Benson said.

Federal money is still available for emergency protective measures and for debris removal, which are the immediate concerns of state officials regarding Missouri River flood damage, Benson said.

“That is the work that we are funding right now because the water is still up and we still can’t see the damages,” Benson added.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s move to freeze disaster relief funds only affects longer term projects, and is intended to ensure the availability of money for immediate disaster response, said Josh deBerge, a FEMA spokesman in agency’s Kansas City office. This means that reconstruction projects for infrastructure like public buildings and city and county roads and bridges will be put on hold.

“It does not mean that funds are eliminated, it does not mean that funds are going to be reduced,” deBerge said. “It just means there’s going to be a little bit of a delay until we begin obligating those types of projects again.”

The delay will remain in effect until Congress appropriates more money to FEMA, he said.

Flood-relief efforts along the Missouri River in western Iowa are unlikely to be affected by the freeze because they’re still in the early stages, deBerge said. It could be months before Iowa and Nebraska river communities are ready to claim the currently frozen funds for reconstruction projects.

What could be affected, however, are reconstruction efforts in eastern Iowa from the 2008 floods that hit Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and elsewhere.The freeze could also impact efforts in Ames, Des Moines, Colfax and other Iowa communities to recover from 2010 flooding, Benson said

Cedar Rapids City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said his city was analyzing the effect of the funding freeze, but remained confident FEMA would follow through on its commitments.

“We see this as a potentially very short-term issue,” Pomeranz said.

FEMA’s funding freeze isn’t expected to delay work to reopen flood-damaged Interstate Highway 29, Interstate Highay 680 and some other state roads in western Iowa, said Dena Gray-Fisher, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Transportation. Those roads are classified as federal-aid highways and are eligible for emergency relief money from the Federal Highway Administration, which provides up to $100 million per state, per disaster, she said

Fifty-two miles of I-29 remain closed by flooding in western Iowa, along with six miles of I-680 in the Council Bluffs area, plus sections of Iowa Highway 2 and Iowa Highway 175, including the Missouri River bridge at Decatur, Neb. No timetable has been set to reopen the roads, said Bob Younie, the DOT’s state maintenance engineer.

Some stretches of I-680 have been destroyed and there are concerns about serious damage to bridges on I-29, DOT officials said, which could significantly delay efforts to reopen both interstate highways.

“As the water goes down, we will know more, and obviously the more damage there is, the longer it is going to take to fix it,” Younie said.

Some cities and counties in western Iowa with flood-damaged roads could be affected by FEMA’s freeze because they have roads that are not on the federal-aid highway system and will need to rely on FEMA for help, Gray-Fisher said.